


Avalanche

by GretchenSinister



Series: My Top 3 Pitchmas Fics [1]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Far Future, I mean it's not REALLY death, M/M, and it's not REALLY m/m either, eldritch guardians, rated T for thematic elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22625803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "I am itching for those North/Pitch fics, it seems like such an interesting pairing!So here’s my prompt:Pitch met North years and years back, when North was the incredibly handsome young bandit in the cold, desolate plains near what would become Santoff Clausen. Maybe North was fearless to the point of recklessness and Pitch wanted to play with the stunning young fool.To teach him a lesson, Pitch gets North trapped somewhere where he ends up fearing for his life, and Pitch doesn’t so much comfort him as show him that he should be more careful, that fear could draw the line between life or death.North is so grateful that he never forgets this Pitch, so wise and calm and noble.Fastforward to when North becomes a guardian…[cut for length]"I…don’t know if this story really addresses the prompt. North gets caught in an avalanche, his lack of fear for himself attracts Pitch.North invites him to be a Guardian, he says no.Much later, North accepts an offer Pitch makes.HOWEVER all this takes place in the Dumb Eldritch Abomination Husbands-verse.
Relationships: Nicholas St. North/Pitch Black
Series: My Top 3 Pitchmas Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1627792
Kudos: 7
Collections: Pitchmas Short Fics





	Avalanche

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 9/11/2013. Additional note: the timeline in this fic has been preserved as in the original version. In the planned "Apotheosis" compilation of eldritch guardian fics, attention will be given towards rectifying these issues.
> 
> Here's the rest of the prompt: "he invites the others (Sandy and Tooth) and even Pitch to join him–excited to see the one who helped him that day–whom he had harbored love for. 
> 
> He’s surprised to find that Pitch isn’t like the one he knew. He’s unraveling, becoming less about fear protecting people and more about fear controlling people. 
> 
> Present day: North has tried to connect with Pitch for years. He’ll be damned if he lets the noble one he once knew fall completely into darkness. 
> 
> TL;DR Young North falls in love with a wise Pitch Black who helps him in youth, and older North tries everything to keep present!Pitch from falling deeper and deeper into his pit of crazy by reminding him how noble he once was.
> 
> Fluff or mature, I don’t mind, so long as there’s romance ;) And a heaping helping of young and old North handsomeness."

He was going to die. North closed his eyes, preferring the dark created by his eyelids to the dark in the small (all too small) air pocket deep within the tons upon tons of snow and ice that had slid down the face of the mountain just a few minutes before. The last thing he had seen clearly had been the blindingly white snow rushing toward him, the edge of the avalanche blurred so that it looked like it should have been as silent and light as a cloud on a summer’s day. Instead, it had sounded like thunder and had knocked him off Petrov, thrown him up and down and around until, now, when he was still, he didn’t know which way he was facing.  
  
He knew what one was supposed to do in this situation. Spit into your hand. Dig in the direction away from where the spit rolls. But the avalanche had buried him too densely. His arms were trapped, his hands were numb. And it was very, very dark. He was probably too far down to dig himself out even if he did know which way to go.  
  
And so even though he knew what he was supposed to do, all he could think of was the other thing he knew: he knew that he only had a few breaths left.  
  
He began to grow afraid. How large had the avalanche been? There was a village nearby—had the snow buried it too? What had happened to Petrov? And—had it been his fault? Had one too-loud laugh brought the mountain down?  
  
Something seemed to shift around him and he opened his eyes, but, if anything, the air pocket was darker than before.  
  
 _still no self? not like others could becomebecome but need to live longlong ordinary first_  
  
It was a voice. It was not a voice. It was the smell of smoke from a burning house, it was the sting of the cuts ice had made on his face and neck, it was the taste of someone else’s blood in his mouth.  
  
He understood it.  
  
 _curiouscurious what will you be have to find out is your mind like your tallstrongbrownbeardbody? goldkindness will laughunderstand but/still told you were one to watch was right right always right smug little but donotmind keep your eyesopen now_  
  
–and without warning he was standing on top of the snow, Petrov’s bridle in his hand. His heart pounded in his chest, and in the clear air he still felt unable to breathe. His hands shook, and what he knew now was that he was in the grip of physical terror. He had never felt it before. And something, something had never seen him that way before, and liked what it saw now.  
  
He made his way to the village feeling as if he was moving as slowly as the glacier in the distance, without uttering a sound.  
  


* * *

  
  
He invited both Old Men to become Guardians. Sandy said yes, and Pitch said no, and he wondered if their answers meant anything, and which one should concern him more.  
  


* * *

  
  
He is about to die. After all this time, he is the last. Jack went long ago, of course. Bunny had followed, a few thousand years later. Tooth had gone slowly, fairy by fairy, but now she is gone too.  
  
Well, not gone.  
  
None of them are gone. They’ve just…changed.   
  
North misses them, though, perhaps now they are more themselves than ever.   
  
They’re going to make him the same way.  
  
He doesn’t think about that. He thinks instead about all the wonders he’s seen of Earth over his decades, and then his centuries, and then his millennia. He thinks that there might well be more wonders to come, but he will not see them. Not as he is.   
  
The last of the ships left today, leaving in due time to escape the expansion of the sun. There are many places where it might go, both known and unknown. But North is not in any of those places, and now the globe is dark and he is about to die.  
  
Darkness uncoils from the silent corners of the room and flows over to where North is sitting in an easy chair he knows he will not rise from. The others do not follow, and he is surprised, even now.  
  
 _longlong time for you since the avalanche_ it whispers.  
  
“Surely it is long time even for you,” North says, trying not to notice the effort it takes to draw breath.  
  
The shadow ripples but doesn’t answer in anything like words.  
  
 _been veryvery patient you’ve been readyready for at least thousand years_  
  
“No, I haven’t,” North says. “I am not ready now. I am…afraid.”  
  
 _that’s why here why only one_  
  
“I am afraid I will miss myself.”  
  
The shadow doesn’t answer, and North knows that it’s never really understood words like ‘myself’. He can’t expect it to be able to reply. “I am afraid it is not right for me to come with you.”  
  
 _but…of course is right needyouneedyou whitebeard wonder tallwalking in redblue jets new new humansnothumans needyouneedyou too…still want to touch your mind_ the shadow finishes, almost shyly.  
  
North sighs, and blinks slowly. He loves Earth so much, the thought of leaving it to be devoured by the sun cuts him more sharply than any sword of his youth. But then, a thought flickers to life like a candle flame. “I could make it again,” he says, his toymaker’s fingers stirring slightly on the armrests of the chair, and the shadow smiles like scales and a smell almost like apples.  
  
 _yesyes you could_  
  
“It will be wonderful,” North says, and closes his eyes for the last time.  
  
When he sees again the shadow is lightly brushing against his edges, still surprisingly well-defined. And since it has been such a long time since the avalanche, wasNorth decides he and the shadow will not go join the others immediately.  
  
For now, they have even more time than before.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> Gretchen I really love this dumb eldritch polyamorous clusterfuck AU you’ve made. It’s all the best parts of the rotg OT6, with a sprinkling of horrorterrors and sugar on top.
> 
> It’s having your cake AND a bowl of ice cream right after.
> 
> Whoever said you can have too much of a good thing was LYING.
> 
> #I JUST WANT #EVERYONE TO GET MARRIED #AND KISS #AND MAYBE TOUCH BUTTS A LITTLE #I SHIP THEM ALL #THE SHIP NAME FOR PITCH + GUARDIANS IS JUST CLUSTERFUCK #THAT'S REALLY ALL YOU CAN CALL IT


End file.
